TruthScape.com  9  The Truth About RuneScape's Community and Its Impact on Children       9  Specific Dangers and Behavioral Concerns in the RuneScape Community

Item Scamming, Account Scamming and Luring Relationship Issues, Dating and Sex

One of the most endearing qualities of children is their innocence and innate sense of trust. Unfortunately, childish naiveté acts as a beacon to the less desirable elements of any society, and leads to kids being exploited and betrayed. In online communities there is the safety in knowing that physical harm can't happen over a computer, but emotional harm is very much a danger: the anonymity and distance emboldens nasty people into feeling that they can act with impunity.

Children will naturally make friends with those whom they encounter in RuneScape, and over time they may feel that they “get to know” these friends pretty well. In many cases these friendships are real, and they can improve the quality of gaming a great deal.

The reality, though, is that you can spend a year talking to a friend online and spending time gaming with them, and never really get to know them. Even adults fall into the trap of thinking they know someone based on an online relationship, only to discover that they were grossly mistaken about the other person's true nature.

Be sure to teach your children that they should always keep a safe distance from friends online, even if they feel they “know them”. They should be particularly cautious of friends who want to “borrow items” or “go PKing with them”. These are common scams and lures that kids fall for every day. In some cases a friend can betray a player even after knowing them for years. Seems strange, but I've heard of it happening.

Amazingly enough, I've also heard many stories of kids who started playing RuneScape with friends from real life (schoolmates and so forth) having those “friends” scam them out of items. It's sad what greed can do to people. When I see someone upset because their “best friend from school” scammed them, all I can do is shake my head.

Another danger is that children may befriend someone who turns out to be an online predator. This is a rather rare occurrence on RuneScape, but all kids should be warned of what to watch for and how to deal with it, especially inappropriate chat and requests for personal information.

Item Scamming, Account Scamming and Luring Relationship Issues, Dating and Sex